Religion
Related: About this forumBigotry, the Bible and the Lessons of Indiana
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/05/opinion/sunday/frank-bruni-same-sex-sinners.html?_r=0APRIL 3, 2015
Frank Bruni
Ben Wiseman
THE drama in Indiana last week and the larger debate over so-called religious freedom laws in other states portray homosexuality and devout Christianity as forces in fierce collision.
Theyre not at least not in several prominent denominations, which have come to a new understanding of what the Bible does and doesnt decree, of what people can and cannot divine in regard to Gods will.
And homosexuality and Christianity dont have to be in conflict in any church anywhere.
That many Christians regard them as incompatible is understandable, an example not so much of hatreds pull as of traditions sway. Beliefs ossified over centuries arent easily shaken.
more at link
phil89
(1,043 posts)So god wasn't too good at getting his intentions across before I suppose. Doesn't seem like it would have been to difficult to address when he was inspiring men to write his word. Unbelievable.
cbayer
(146,218 posts)that some denominations are coming to a new understanding. I fully support them.
phil89
(1,043 posts)For allowing room for such mistakes to be made... If only there were evidence for a god and some way to examine it we might know.
cbayer
(146,218 posts)There is no evidence for god and no way to examine the questions, so everything is open to speculation. I am highly skeptical, but never completely dismiss the possibility.
Mariana
(14,860 posts)that will harm themselves, or other people, then those parents are indeed cruel.
cbayer
(146,218 posts)That is how they learn to think critically. There is nothing cruel about it.
This whole "god is cruel because he doesn't control everything" meme is silly.
Mariana
(14,860 posts)so they can learn to think critically?
How far does that go, exactly? How much harm should children be permitted to cause before a parent steps in and puts a stop to it?
cbayer
(146,218 posts)unpleasant consequences is not a bad thing.
It is up to a parent to decide where to draw the line and certainly causing serious or permanent injury should be on the other side of that line.
Where do you draw the line? Or, assuming you have children, do you always step in before any harm is done at all? If so, at what age do you stop doing that?
Just like the Mormons came to a "new understanding" that darker-skinned races weren't inferior. Convenient, eh?
AtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)Not that many Catholics? BULLSHIT
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/05/23/489006/82-percent-of-catholics-birth-control/
15 percent of catholics is 10.5 MILLION PEOPLE. That's not 'not that many' to me. On the national scale, 'not that many' is, to me, more like a number that fits inside a sports stadium.
And those 10.5 million people are echoing word for word what the Pope/RCC teaches on this issue.
Same church that sued to block the contraception mandate of the ACA.
okasha
(11,573 posts)It takes some real squinting to see 82% as less significant than the 15% of holdouts.
AtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)Giving it lobbying power in line with the 15%'s view.
okasha
(11,573 posts)the power of its managers is seriously in question.
AtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)trotsky
(49,533 posts)okasha
(11,573 posts)The number of reproductive-age Catholics using birth control is up.
The number of divorced and remarried Catholics is up.
The number of unmarried Catholic couples living together and having children is up.
Management 101: Never give an order you can't enforce.
Catholic women who vote outnumber the bishops. If they have to jump through hoops to obtain contraceptives, they will remember the politicians who forced them to do it.
AtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)Keep ignoring that, and the damage it's done.
okasha
(11,573 posts)Least of all the women affected.
Act_of_Reparation
(9,116 posts)But we don't. Most live under authoritarian regimes. Those of us that don't are constituents of representative democracies, which are generally insulated against majoritarianism.
While this is handy insofar as it keeps the majority from running roughshod over the rights and interests of minorities, it sometimes gives minorities influence disproportionate to their numbers.
Given that church leaders are more influential than parishioners themselves, and that within the church itself the zealous 15% commands greater influence than the right-thinking 82%, there's little solace to be taken from numbers. However insignificant they may look next to the majority, these 15% are a real problem.
AtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)s.
That would be AWFUL.
Act_of_Reparation
(9,116 posts)We don't even need to get as crazy as the WBC.
There are only about 15 million LDS-affiliated Mormons in the world. Not all of them are hardliners. But who is really going to argue that we don't need to worry about the political capital these guys have at their disposal?
They are proof-positive a unified and motivated minority can, in a representative democracy, affect political change completely disproportionate to its membership.
okasha
(11,573 posts)because the politicians they influence grant them more credence than they grant to the people in the pews. One managerial hand washes the other. That's a mistake.